IRS Faces Torrent of Criticism on Tax Day

Republicans and conservatives used April 15, Tax Day, to attack the Internal Revenue Service while some liberals took the opportunity to criticize the tax code, The Hill reported.

The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service demanding records pertaining to the agency's treatment of conservative groups which had applied for 501(c)(4) tax deductible status.

"On Tax Day especially Americans deserve to know whether they can trust the agency to which they're sending their taxes," Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman said in a statement. "If the IRS and the Obama administration don't have anything to hide, why not answer the request?"

Tea Party Patriots said it had filed its own suit against the IRS in an effort to discover how the agency wrote the rules used to target conservative groups and what role Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official, had in developing the policy.

Business groups used the day to call for lowering corporate taxes. The Alliance for Competitive Taxation would like to see the tax code rewritten to make the U.S. industry more competitive. The Tax Analysis Center said corporate tax reform would be good for American workers.

The American Action Forum, a conservative group, called for a simplified tax code, in part, so that Americans would not have to spend a collective 2.6 billion hours doing complex and unproductive paperwork, The Hill reported.

Liberal groups were also active. The Sunlight Foundation urged the IRS "not to give up on its effort to clarify whether and to what extent nonprofit organizations may engage in political activity," according to a statement.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group issued a statement saying that offshore tax havens used by the wealthy cost average taxpayers over $1,200 annually because they had to cover the lost revenues, The Hill reported.